{"id":99997,"date":"2020-08-12T12:27:59","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T16:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=99997"},"modified":"2022-09-15T11:41:32","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T15:41:32","slug":"innovatebus-summer-accelerator-goes-virtual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2020\/08\/12\/innovatebus-summer-accelerator-goes-virtual\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovate@BU\u2019s Summer Accelerator Goes Virtual"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Venture program wrapped last week with pitches to investors<\/h2>\n

By Jacob Gurvis (COM\u201920)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In summer 2019, Sayi Makwaia interned at a start-up in Tanzania that focuses on connecting local farmers with middlemen and other bulk buyers. While there, she met Maria, a smallholder farmer who struggled with selling her produce.<\/p>\n

BU MBA candidate Makwaia (Questrom\u201920) was struck by the lack of proper resources and technology available to farmers like Maria, and saw an opportunity to make a difference. She created Freshi, a digital platform aimed at connecting Tanzanian smallholder farmers directly with customers to reduce waste and improve the agricultural supply chain.<\/p>\n

A year later, Makwaia took her viable idea to Innovate@BU<\/a>\u2019s Summer Accelerator<\/a> program, a 10-week intensive incubator that helps BU students and recent alums develop early-stage venture projects. It was the pathway she needed to propel her idea to the next level.<\/p>\n

Typically hosted at the BUild Lab, the 10th iteration of the Summer Accelerator was moved online this summer per BU\u2019s coronavirus guidelines. Although the program was operated remotely, it maintained all its core components, says Rachel Spekman, Innovate@BU program director of business ventures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goals are for students to make progress on their own start-up (both for-profit and nonprofit) ideas, develop entrepreneurial skills, be a thoughtful community contributor, and for students to be proactive about building their ventures and networks,\u201d Spekman says.<\/p>\n

Following a rigorous application process, teams are provided with a $10,000 stipend, as well as education and mentorship on innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the summer. Each team is assigned two mentors, and all participants attended virtual weekly office hours and workshops on topics such as public speaking, customer discovery, and more.<\/p>\n

There were 14 teams participating this summer, representing seven BU schools and colleges. The program requires that each project team have at least one member from BU\u2014a current student or an alum who graduated within the past year\u2014and some of this year\u2019s groups also had students from schools like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The program started June 1 and culminated in an afternoon of presentations on August 6. Split into three Zoom calls, venture teams were given 10 minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel of\u00a0investors, business executives, and industry experts, in pursuit of their time. Judges provided feedback to each team, and had the opportunity of offering additional meetings, in 15-minute increments, to teams they wanted to learn more about or provide with further advice. The teams received a combined 885 minutes of time from the 12 judges.<\/p>\n

For Makwaia, the presentations evoked a mix of emotions, nerve-wracking and validating at the same time, she says. Freshi received two hours of time from two judges\u2014the most of any team\u2014and a third offered to connect them to an organization doing similar work. Makwaia had not expected the kind of positive response her pitch received.<\/p>\n

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Members of the 2020 Summer Accelerator gathered for a concluding ceremony and toast on August 6.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was really a humbling experience, especially after the feedback from the judges,\u201d she says. \u201cIt just really affirmed to us that we really need to continue this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Fachetti<\/a> (Questrom\u201994), executive vice president of strategy at BitSight, was one of the judges who committed time to Freshi. With more than 30 years of experience as an executive and advisor to early-stage, high-growth companies, the alum has a keen eye for venture investments and was happy to help out his alma mater.<\/p>\n

Although Fachetti does not typically work with companies at such an early stage, he liked what he saw at BU. The pitches were well-executed, he says, and the ideas were thoughtful and creative. \u201cThey had all developed some meaningful early efforts in these companies,\u201d he says. \u201cI was really impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fachetti had several reasons for offering time to Freshi: a clear idea, a good market opportunity, and perhaps most important, passion. \u201cI identified with it,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of times when you\u2019re approaching an investor, does what you\u2019re doing resonate with them?\u201d In Freshi\u2019s case, Fachetti\u2019s answer was yes.<\/p>\n

For Peter Siegel (ENG\u201922) and Pavel Gromov (ENG\u201922), both mechanical engineers, the Summer Accelerator program provided a more holistic approach to an idea they had been developing since September 2019: an environment mapping and sensing platform that allows cities and institutions to monitor air quality and capacity, which they named BeagleNet. The Summer Accelerator was the third venture competition the group had entered, and BeagleNet was offered 30 minutes of time from an investor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty good at the product design aspect, solving an engineering problem,\u201d says Siegel. \u201cBut the Summer Accelerator gave us an opportunity to really become a lot more acquainted with, and a lot better at, the business side of things. Knowing what\u2019s the value proposition of this product, what\u2019s the target customer segment, is there actually a market for it? And that really did help evolve our idea and ground it a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 10 weeks of development and feedback, BeagleNet will be piloting its system at BU this fall semester. In collaboration with BU Information Services & Technology, the start-up will install its systems in various common spaces, dining halls, and classrooms across campus.<\/p>\n

Both the commitment from an investor and BU\u2019s partnership provided welcomed validation for BeagleNet. \u201cIt means that there are definitely venture capitalists, other people out there, that take this idea seriously and that it\u2019s a viable product,\u201d Gromov says.<\/p>\n

During an otherwise challenging time, the Summer Accelerator was a bright spot for Makwaia.<\/p>\n

She did not attend Questrom\u2019s virtual 2020 graduation ceremony, but when it came time to log on for the Summer Accelerator goodbye gathering and team toast, she was there. That, she says, was like her real graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the highlight of my two years at BU,\u201d Makwaia says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venture program wrapped last week with pitches to investors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13786,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99997"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13786"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126994,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99997\/revisions\/126994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}